Cecilia Nguyen
Dr. Sherry
Foundations of College Writing
This semester, I took the class Foundations of College Writing with Dr. Sherry. In my portfolio, I have listed all five course goal objectives that I've worked towards in this class to improve my writing skills. Along with having them listed below, I also gave examples for each and explained how they have helped me. All five of these goals were something that benefited me and made me strive to better my work. The examples I've used for each different goal have all come from the three main projects which consist of the Clue, Ear, and Tell project. In the Clue project, I examined college students and the effect drinking had on their school work. I got to interview a couple of students to get a better understanding as to why they drink. In the Ear project, I took different flyers and satires and explained why each were appropriate to different audiences. In the Tell project, we had to choose three significant events, things, or people from our past, present, and future that has helped us become educated. We then had to tie all the three things that we chose together. All of these projects have helped me tremendously in different ways. The projects not only helped my writing but it also helped me transform my writing into different styles and forms in order to present them to different kinds of audiences.
Goal A. Students will be able to compose for particular audiences and purposes.
We translated this goal in class in our own words - To transform information in ways that are appropriate to who is viewing it and why. Writing papers, I never thought about the audience and who was viewing it. I didn't take in consideration about how each different type of audience responds to things differently. This goal has helped me see different perspectives and has helped me improve my writing skills. I've learned a lot especially when it comes to researching information and forming it so that it is appealing to different kinds of audiences. One tool that Dr. Sherry has taught in class that has been really helpful was the acronym PAGE. PAGE stands for Purpose, Audience, Genre, and Engagement. These principles made me analyze my work and in a way give it more meaning. It made me think about my writing and why I was writing it. It also made me look at other aspects like who my writing was targeting and how I wanted to write it so that it also engaged with people who were reading my work.
Goal B. Students will be able to compose using language and conventions appropriate to genre.
Goal B means to write or present using the style/rules of the form. An example when I did this was in my Tell project. We had to choose three things that helped us learn what it means to be educated. We had to choose people, events, or things from our past, present, and then future. I demonstrated this goal in my Tell project. For my past, I chose my grandmother. She has taught me things in my life that I could never learn in school. For my present, I chose my arrow tattoo. The meaning of it has helped me as a reminder to get back up from any struggles in life. Lastly for my future, I chose a sunflower to symbolize my sisters and our growth. From being all at home at one point to seeing them go off to college and start their careers they have shown me what it means to be educated. I look up to my tattoo, my grandma, and my sisters as guidance. I tied all three of these things together because they have all helped me learn what it means to be educated.
Goal C. Students will be able to read, select, and use evidence critically to formulate and support arguments.
This goal means to find and use information that will help support a point. We demonstrated this goal in our Clue projects. Something we learned in class that helped us strive towards this goal was the 3 INs. They stand for Introduce, Insert, and Interpret. The 3 INs helped me get my my writing across and it also helped me give sufficient evidence to my arguments. In my paper, I wrote about college drinking and the effects it had on a person's schoolwork. I also included in my paper different perspectives from different people at Bloomsburg as to why students drank. In order to prove my point it was helpful incorporating the 3 INs. To do so, I had to gather up research from multiple different sources. A statistic I included in my Clue project that I found very interesting was that, “An average student consumes an average of 3.4 drinks per week, B average students were drinking 4.5 drinks, C students were drinking 6.1 drinks, and D or F students typically drank 9.8 drinks” (Perkins 2002). I formulated my argument that drinking has an effect on a student's schooling and I included statistics that helped support it.
Goal D. Students will be able to interpret and compose in a variety of media and print/non-print genres.
The class translation - read and create in multiple ways using multiple forms. This goal made me look at my writing and form it into different types of forms. The CRAP principles were very helpful when it came to this course goal objective. CRAP stands for Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity. An example of when I used the CRAP principles was in the Ear project. In my Ear project below, I give many different examples of good and bad flyers. The good flyers include all of the CRAP principles and are appealing to the eyes. Something helpful that we did in class was we grouped up and had to go outside the classroom to find a flyer that had all of the CRAP principles. That was a fun activity to do and discussing it with the class helped me get a clearer understanding. Learning the CRAP principles was something I will continue to use just to help make things more organized and neat for people reading my work.
Goal E. Students will be able to discuss and apply appropriate writing processes both individually and in collaborative contexts.
In Dr. Sherry's class we always had deadlines for our drafts and then our final product. After each project, I always looked forward to getting feedback from my classmates and from Dr. Sherry. The peer review sheets especially were helpful. The peer review sheets had a column of myself which I liked because it made you look back on your work and self reflect on your writing. With each project, I used the sheets as a guideline to make sure I had everything checked off the list. Grouping up with multiple partners and exchanging project drafts was something that definitely benefited me and my grade. It was nice to get other people's thoughts and what they thought I should change to better my work. The sheet below is an example of a classmate giving me her revisions on the Clue project. The Clue project was the project that I got the most feedback and most help from. I know my writing in that paper was kind of unorganized and I had a lot of grammar mistakes so it was beneficial that I had partners to point that stuff out for me. After been giving the review sheets, we were also given revision sheets. After our revisions and when turning in our final draft, we filled out those sheets. It forced me to write down what I changed and all the different mistakes I made so I would remember them and not do them in the future.
Dr. Sherry's Foundation of College Writing class has been such a fun learning experience. It wasn't just boring lectures and book work but it went beyond that. We did tons of group work which helped me learn to work better with other people. Dr. Sherry came in every day enthused to teach and made learning fun. I've learned so much and have improved my writing in just a short amount of time. I never saw myself as a very creative person but this class pushed me and made me think outside of the box. We learned how to take our ideas and thoughts and form them into different types of writing styles like a paper, flyer, brochure, or power point. Learning about each of these five course goal objectives have been very beneficial and I will take what I learned and use it in the future.
Dr. Sherry
Foundations of College Writing
This semester, I took the class Foundations of College Writing with Dr. Sherry. In my portfolio, I have listed all five course goal objectives that I've worked towards in this class to improve my writing skills. Along with having them listed below, I also gave examples for each and explained how they have helped me. All five of these goals were something that benefited me and made me strive to better my work. The examples I've used for each different goal have all come from the three main projects which consist of the Clue, Ear, and Tell project. In the Clue project, I examined college students and the effect drinking had on their school work. I got to interview a couple of students to get a better understanding as to why they drink. In the Ear project, I took different flyers and satires and explained why each were appropriate to different audiences. In the Tell project, we had to choose three significant events, things, or people from our past, present, and future that has helped us become educated. We then had to tie all the three things that we chose together. All of these projects have helped me tremendously in different ways. The projects not only helped my writing but it also helped me transform my writing into different styles and forms in order to present them to different kinds of audiences.
Goal A. Students will be able to compose for particular audiences and purposes.
We translated this goal in class in our own words - To transform information in ways that are appropriate to who is viewing it and why. Writing papers, I never thought about the audience and who was viewing it. I didn't take in consideration about how each different type of audience responds to things differently. This goal has helped me see different perspectives and has helped me improve my writing skills. I've learned a lot especially when it comes to researching information and forming it so that it is appealing to different kinds of audiences. One tool that Dr. Sherry has taught in class that has been really helpful was the acronym PAGE. PAGE stands for Purpose, Audience, Genre, and Engagement. These principles made me analyze my work and in a way give it more meaning. It made me think about my writing and why I was writing it. It also made me look at other aspects like who my writing was targeting and how I wanted to write it so that it also engaged with people who were reading my work.
My Clue Paper:
Goal B. Students will be able to compose using language and conventions appropriate to genre.
Goal B means to write or present using the style/rules of the form. An example when I did this was in my Tell project. We had to choose three things that helped us learn what it means to be educated. We had to choose people, events, or things from our past, present, and then future. I demonstrated this goal in my Tell project. For my past, I chose my grandmother. She has taught me things in my life that I could never learn in school. For my present, I chose my arrow tattoo. The meaning of it has helped me as a reminder to get back up from any struggles in life. Lastly for my future, I chose a sunflower to symbolize my sisters and our growth. From being all at home at one point to seeing them go off to college and start their careers they have shown me what it means to be educated. I look up to my tattoo, my grandma, and my sisters as guidance. I tied all three of these things together because they have all helped me learn what it means to be educated.
Goal C. Students will be able to read, select, and use evidence critically to formulate and support arguments.
This goal means to find and use information that will help support a point. We demonstrated this goal in our Clue projects. Something we learned in class that helped us strive towards this goal was the 3 INs. They stand for Introduce, Insert, and Interpret. The 3 INs helped me get my my writing across and it also helped me give sufficient evidence to my arguments. In my paper, I wrote about college drinking and the effects it had on a person's schoolwork. I also included in my paper different perspectives from different people at Bloomsburg as to why students drank. In order to prove my point it was helpful incorporating the 3 INs. To do so, I had to gather up research from multiple different sources. A statistic I included in my Clue project that I found very interesting was that, “An average student consumes an average of 3.4 drinks per week, B average students were drinking 4.5 drinks, C students were drinking 6.1 drinks, and D or F students typically drank 9.8 drinks” (Perkins 2002). I formulated my argument that drinking has an effect on a student's schooling and I included statistics that helped support it.
My Clue Project:
Goal D. Students will be able to interpret and compose in a variety of media and print/non-print genres.
The class translation - read and create in multiple ways using multiple forms. This goal made me look at my writing and form it into different types of forms. The CRAP principles were very helpful when it came to this course goal objective. CRAP stands for Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity. An example of when I used the CRAP principles was in the Ear project. In my Ear project below, I give many different examples of good and bad flyers. The good flyers include all of the CRAP principles and are appealing to the eyes. Something helpful that we did in class was we grouped up and had to go outside the classroom to find a flyer that had all of the CRAP principles. That was a fun activity to do and discussing it with the class helped me get a clearer understanding. Learning the CRAP principles was something I will continue to use just to help make things more organized and neat for people reading my work.
My Ear Project:
Goal E. Students will be able to discuss and apply appropriate writing processes both individually and in collaborative contexts.
In Dr. Sherry's class we always had deadlines for our drafts and then our final product. After each project, I always looked forward to getting feedback from my classmates and from Dr. Sherry. The peer review sheets especially were helpful. The peer review sheets had a column of myself which I liked because it made you look back on your work and self reflect on your writing. With each project, I used the sheets as a guideline to make sure I had everything checked off the list. Grouping up with multiple partners and exchanging project drafts was something that definitely benefited me and my grade. It was nice to get other people's thoughts and what they thought I should change to better my work. The sheet below is an example of a classmate giving me her revisions on the Clue project. The Clue project was the project that I got the most feedback and most help from. I know my writing in that paper was kind of unorganized and I had a lot of grammar mistakes so it was beneficial that I had partners to point that stuff out for me. After been giving the review sheets, we were also given revision sheets. After our revisions and when turning in our final draft, we filled out those sheets. It forced me to write down what I changed and all the different mistakes I made so I would remember them and not do them in the future.
Dr. Sherry's Foundation of College Writing class has been such a fun learning experience. It wasn't just boring lectures and book work but it went beyond that. We did tons of group work which helped me learn to work better with other people. Dr. Sherry came in every day enthused to teach and made learning fun. I've learned so much and have improved my writing in just a short amount of time. I never saw myself as a very creative person but this class pushed me and made me think outside of the box. We learned how to take our ideas and thoughts and form them into different types of writing styles like a paper, flyer, brochure, or power point. Learning about each of these five course goal objectives have been very beneficial and I will take what I learned and use it in the future.